The origin of today’s tea ceremony, “wabi-cha,” emerged as a counter-movement to extravagant tea parties hosted by social elites in the 15th century.

As used in the term “wabi-sabi,” wabi, referred to the loneliness of living in nature, remote from society. “Wabi-(sabi)” has found a place in Japanese aesthetics. In wabi-cha, the tea house was itself a medium to the affirmation of life through making tea.

Tai-an was designed for Toyotomi Hideyoshi, an extravagant military leader in Japan at the time, by tea master Sen no Rikyu. To deliver a tea ceremony for this particular powerful general, Rikyu designed the smallest hut, Tai-an. It was the size of 2 tatami mats (3.6 m^2).

In this collection, I studied the architectural designs of Tai-an. And then translated imaginary tea ceremonies within Tai-an & within code. The medium that was the tea house and the tea ceremony, is now served with generative instances of experience.

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Jimi Wen
11/02/2022